


What can our Spider Do?

by concreteflour



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Spidersense, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 14:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14696106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/concreteflour/pseuds/concreteflour
Summary: It's difficult to be part of a team when they don't know what you're capable of.  For that matter, Spider-Man isn't sure what he's capable of.  There's only one way to find out.If you like it, please leave me a comment.  And read my other story, "My Best Day Ever!" another Spider-Man based story.





	What can our Spider Do?

Peter was used to training on Friday nights. While other kids his age were out to a movie or parties, he got to be beat-up by some of the most dangerous people on the planet. The biggest advantage to this schedule was that his healing factor allowed the assorted scrapes, bruises, or other minor injuries to have completely healing before school on Monday morning.

And he loved it!

How many people were trained in hand-to-hand combat by the Black Widow, perhaps the most skillful non-enhanced fighter in the world? How many were taught tactics by Captain America? How many people got individual training on identifying threats and evaluating weaknesses by War Machine and Iron Man? If these were classroom based, the levels would be Doctorate and above!

This Friday had Clint and Natasha waiting for him in the training room. That in itself was not unusual, neither was a small group of interested on-lookers. Today’s group of interested onlookers included Tony, which was very unusual, and even Pepper Potts, which was unheard of. Dr. Cho, their part time team doctor, was sitting next to Dr. Bruce Banner. Thor was reclined in the largest chair. Even Vision and Wand Maximoff were watching.

One advantage to the observation room was a large video screen that allowed several angles and playback for any training.

“How are you feeling Pete?” Natasha asked.

“Fine, up till a minute ago. Now a sense of dread is creeping into my system.”

Clint laughed. “No worries, kid. We just have a slightly different training program today. Or I should say, slightly more to it.”

“Peter,” Natasha continued, “you have enhancements different than most of us. In order for us to help you, we need to understand what your capabilities are. So, part of today is a testing of those capabilities to see what you can do, and then we can start to figure out the best way to get you the training that you need.”

Clint added, “For example, I’ve seen the YouTube video of you lifting a bus, to stop it from going off a bridge. But we really don’t know how strong you really are, what is your limit? Again, we can look at your speed or reflexes, jumping ability, your sight, hearing, and we all want to get a better understanding of your “Spider-Sense.”

“I hate it when I have a plan, and you dodge out of the way of something you can’t even see coming,” Natasha said with a sneer.

“And bullets! There are multiple videos of you dodging bullets fired from multiple angles, including behind you. As a person who still uses a slower method of weapon delivery, that can be disconcerting!” Clint said with a scowl. “Cap uses his shield, Nat can anticipate the shot, others have armor, but no one can straight up avoid the bullet.”

Peter was actually blushing. “There’s been lots of times I haven’t been able to get out of the way.”

Natasha answered, “That’s true, and Bruce and Dr. Cho have been amazed with your recovery and abilities physically. They have reported that your tendons and connective tissue are at least twice as elastic as a normal person’s. That’s why you can contort into a pretzel in mid-air!”

“Or why two of my arrows, both fired at your chest, can pass your left ear and right foot at the same time,” Clint laughed. “You could give a yoga instructor a heart attack!”

There were chuckles coming from the gallery, as they watched the interplay. Most had worked with Spider-Man at one time or another, and all of the heroes except Bruce had sparred with him. Most were confused by his unique style of fighting. One-on-one, Peter had advantages over each of the Avengers, which was minimized by his relative lack of experience. He had even held his own, for a while at least, with the Mighty Thor.

Natasha and Clint walked the boy-spider down a floor to the main weight room. This room was fitted with extra strengthening do to the capacity of super heroes to drop heavy weights, some of several tons, courtesy of Thor, onto the floor. But there were several new additions to the room, high tech super machines. It was one of these that Peter was led to first.

“This machine will help us get an idea of your strength,” Natasha said. “It will give us a virtual weight based on the movement of your arms. The force fields will simulate weight up to the point where your arms start to tremble with exertion. This is similar to the NFL combine where they measure the ability to lift a weight a maximum number of times. Your strength normally peaks sometime after the first rep and before the fifth, after that is a series of diminishing returns.”

Clint had helped him get into the proper position. As a self-labeled nerd, Peter never had the opportunity to utilize the weight machine at Mid-Town High. Even in classes where it was required, he had to act as if he couldn’t perform the simplest weights. It was a part of the elaborate ruse to prevent people from guessing he was Spider-Man. So, compared to the rest of the Super Heroes, even tech ones like Iron Man, he had less experience than any of them.

“There’s no weights on the bar,” Peter said.

“There doesn’t need to be,” Clint responded, “the computer will measure your stress levels and fatigue in your arm to determine the weight load you can safely handle. The bar is part of an electro-magnet, which will automatically adjust the weight for you. No need for a spotter either, the weight decreases rapidly as the bar is lowered, at least for this test.”

“So, what do you want me to do? How many? How fast? Um, I don’t really have much experience lifting weights, you know.”

Nat responded, “If you can do twenty-five reps, that would be great, a steady pace, like on TV. And Clint will help you with your technique if you need it.”

That was the cue for Clint to kneel down next to Peter, “Okay, place you hands just over shoulder width apart.” He watched as Peter did that. “Just a bit in. Good! Now, you’ll take a deep breath, and push up, using your shoulders, and back. The machine won’t let you hurt yourself, so put your effort into it. The second one will be easier as you get the hang of it.”

Peter took one last long look at Clint, then turned his head and focused on the bar above him. He breathed in and out several times. With an exclamation of outrushing air, he pushed up with all his strength. The bar went quickly up. He was smiling as he brought it back down. “Hey, that wasn’t too bad!”

“Good. Only twenty-four more to go,” Clint replied.

Peter went back to breathing, and lofted the bar again, and again.

“16…15…14 very good,” prodded Clint.

For Peter, it seemed like the weight doubled, tripled, and tripled again. Each time he felt the weight increasing to just about his breaking point, and then there was no more increase. As he started back down the weight fell off as rapidly as it came. By the time his arms were back down, he could feel nothing but the bar alone. Finally, Clint got to zero and he helped Peter off the weight bench.

“Next up,” said Natasha, “we’re going to check you jumping skills, both for strength, and accuracy.”

They measured Spider-Man with weights, attached alternately to his back, his legs, and in front of him. They had him jump to a small dot straight up fifty feet, sideways from wall to wall, and from several walls in combination. 

“Hey, how am I doing?” Peter asked.

“We can’t contaminate the results by telling you halfway through. We’ll let you know when we’re done,” Natasha replied.

A small look of disappointment went across Peter’s face as he headed to the next exercise. They performed balance drills, where Peter was able to balance on one finger, upside down, on a wire. They measured his vision, by simulating people in Tony’s Holotank and having Peter determine what was changing at up to simulated mile.

They had him punch a special punching bag, not terribly unlike the carnival type of game, to see how hard you can hit. Again, it was a Tony Stark Special, and allowed him to use his full force. Clint had him punch the target dozens of times, even to the point of standing perpendicular off a wall to see if his power changed.

They actually left the compound to perform auditory testing, where Peter found he could track a single sound out of hundreds being broadcast in his direction, by a myriad of sources.

Finally came the portion Peter knew would come, agility. That meant him against the Black Widow. He was surprised however, when he found Cap and Hawkeye suited up for a workout along with the Black Widow. His eyes got even wider when the Scarlet Witch joined them. “Four on one? That’s not fair,” Peter exclaimed.

Captain American looked up at him and said, “Sorry Son, but sometimes life’s not fair.” With that he snapped his shield over his back and let it fly right at Peter’s head.

The next fifteen minutes were about the longest of Peter’s life. There wasn’t a moment when Cap’s shield, an arrow, a taser staff, or bolts of red energy weren’t flying past Peter. He never had a moment to slow down or catch his breath. It almost seemed as if he passed himself in the air, as he was forced to move to avoid the damage headed toward him. He did manage to cast webs to slow down Hawkeye, spilled Captain America twice, and temporarily pin Black Widow’s right arm to a wall. The Scarlet Witch always seemed to be one step ahead of him, and to be honest, she was the one Peter was the most afraid of.

Finally, and thankfully for Peter. Cap called an end to the onslaught. “Okay everyone, let’s call this and see if the pizzas have made it here yet.”

“Pizza?” Peter called down from the ceiling.

“We figured you might need something nice after the workout we had planned,” Natasha said.

“I made need a few minutes to find a part of me that isn’t sore, but if someone will save me a slice of pepperoni and mushroom, or maybe a couple pizzas worth.” Peter slowly webbed his way down to the floor. 

Clint laughed, “Don’t worry, we’ve all seen how much a teenage spider can eat. I think Tony has the delivery coming in shifts, because we’ve also seen that the God of Thunder can pack away a pie or two also!”

Even as the first pizzas were being consumed. Bruce Banner, who had been in charge of the data, started giving his report.

“We have some unique information here. Some of it is truly remarkable.” Bruce had reams of paper spread out in front of him, many with graphs of unrecognizable origins. “Starting with the strength testing, Peter should have maxed out at 5-10 reps and slowly declined in overall strength. Instead he had a small progression in strength each rep, as if his body was building strength as he went along. His last rep was his most powerful and he was lifting just shy of TEN TONS!” 

The thought of pizza disappeared momentarily as the numbers stunned the people who were most ready to believe in Peter’s power.

Banner continued, “His punching power is in at over 4000 lbs per square inch.” He turned to look at Natasha, “If Peter wasn’t pulling his punches, a good hit from him could take your head right off your body. And it didn’t matter if he was on the ground or on the wall, good call Clint on testing that. It seems as if his stickiness to a surface allows him to use a force level that should have thrown him backwards as he connected.” A pause for breath.

“His eyesight me measures at over twice normal human sight, and his hearing is off the chart, with the ability to focus on a single sound against hundreds of others and every dirty trick we could think of.

“The most remarkable skill was the hardest one to measure. We still need a way to accurately measure his Spider-sense. In the slow-motion video, you can actually see Peter begin to avoid Hawkeye’s arrow before they are released, even if his back was turned. Ditto for punches, tasers, shields, darts, and energy balls. Even when the force could not be avoided, Peter usually put himself in a position that minimized the damage and was already preparing for the next challenge. It explains Peter being faster than a bullet, because he starts responding before the bullet is even fired."

Banner paused again. “I keep going back to the strength testing. IT should not have scored that way. I can only theorize that Peter’s body is still growing and getting stronger. A regular workout might greatly increase his capabilities. He has levels now that show that he might rival the strength of Thor in 10 years.” Banner turned and faced Peter. “Right now, as I understand your powers and others who are called enhanced, you rank in raw physical power only behind Hulk, who we really can’t measure. He doesn’t do well in testing.” A small laugh escaped his lips. “It is not possible to measure comparable powers with those of, say, our own Scarlett Witch or Thor’s Lightning, and the Tech warriors have all got strength advantages built in somehow in their suits, but it is astounding how much power you have at such a young age.”

Peter had paused with a slice halfway to his mouth. “I never,” was all he could get out.

“I told you!” Tony said, as he strutted around the table. “I told you how he would do.”

Bruce shot back, “Even you didn’t come up with numbers like these Tony.”

“Who could?” Tony even managed to look even prouder of himself, as if he somehow gave the kid his powers.

Pepper asked a question, “Are you saying, Dr. Banner, that Peter isn’t even at his potential yet?”

“We can’t really tell, but there is definitely potential for a serious amount of more physical abilities. Even the video confirms his reflexes increased during the simulated battle, even as others started showing some signs of fatigue, Peter, even though bruised and tired, had reactions times that were getting FASTER!”

Captain America looked up after he had made another slice disappear. “Well, this tells us one thing. It would seem, Mr. Parker, that your training has only just begun. It seems we’ve been going to easy on you. Now it starts to get hard.”

Peter looked lost, like someone had just promised him detention for a year. “Oh, no!”


End file.
